Vitamin D deficiency linked to aggressive prostate cancer

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-05/nu-vdd042914.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 1-May-2014

Contact: Erin White
Northwestern University
Vitamin D deficiency linked to aggressive prostate cancer
Regular vitamin D screenings could especially benefit white and African-American men

CHICAGO --- African-American and European-American men at high risk of prostate cancer have greater odds of being diagnosed with an aggressive form of the disease if they have a vitamin D deficiency, according to a new study from Northwestern Medicine® and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).

Results of the study will be published May 1 in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"Vitamin D deficiency could be a biomarker of advanced prostate tumor progression in large segments of the general population," said Adam B. Murphy, M.D., lead author of the study. "More research is needed, but it would be wise for men to be screened for vitamin D deficiency and treated."

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